IE sucks!

My comp broke down. I'd have to resort to using my mom's office lappie; thus stucked with IE. If anyone hadn't noticed yet, I was using FireFox and loved it! The lucky thing about this is that I finished watching Gundam 00 before the comp broke down later in the day.

I don't know whether its just me, or is it that Blogger dislike IE. It had been fine so far when I was blogging with FireFox. When I was about to upload a few pictures onto the blog, the IE timed out on me... not once, not twice, but every single time! I had to upload the pictures one by one instead (was uploading 5 at once prior to that). Not only that, I did it quite a few times on the same picture as everytime I cut (ctrl+c), I couldn't paste it anymore (ctrl-v)! Even redo (ctrl-z) couldn't do the trick. This happens as well whenever I accidentally deleted the pictures with a backspace or delete button. (How this would happen, I'd explain below). Thus, having me uploading the same pictures a few time!! zzZ...

The second problem: There's something wrong with the formatting, after having placing the pictures at the spots I wanted to. Every enter I press, it goes down a line, just like how everything would work. The problem is, the line/space that appears/goes down is not instantly below the blinking cursor, its either higher up or lower down in the paragraph. Don't get what I mean? Dont worry: basically, its just freaking screwed!!! (and screwing me upside down!!!). This is the reason whenever I backspace a space that is created by the "enter", there is a chance I will backspace the uploaded picture!!! Talk about frustration!!! Just trying to put the formats in order took more than half an hour; more than the time I took to type the whole thing.

Final words: IE Sucks!!!

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Gundam 00

"Gundam 00 : Episode 01 - Celestial Being"

The new Gundam series just aired last Saturday. Its kind of a good timing since Claymore just ended and I was about to "run" out of animes (that I would like) to catch up on. Many people like to compare Gundam Seed with this new series. Of course, who wouldn't, especially Gundam Seed was such a big hit, as if its THE series, which of course I couldn't disagree at all.

Gundam Seed's opening was classic; comparing it with the new series would not be doing justice to Gundam 00 at all. Without making comparisons, I'd say the opening sequence is pretty good (just not darn good), showing briefly Setsuna's childhood. Nothing less would be expected from Sunrise; the graphics and sound were great.

"There is no God in this world"

If anyone watched Gundam Wing before, you would have noticed how the first episode (or the start of Gundam 00 series) bears resemblance to how Gundam Wing was introduced. The producers decided to have the show less dramatic (as in Gundam Seed). 4 youngsters (teenagers) were introduced as Gundam Meisters, the pilots of Gundams, which belongs to a private army, the Celestial Being, to thwart any flames of war. Their roles together with their Gundams; Exia, Dynames, Kyrios, and Virtue were introduced in the old fashioned way.

Gundam Exia

Gundam Dynames

Gundam Kyrios

Gundam Virtue

A good point is that they noted the contradicting idea of using a stronger army force to prevent war between other countries. Looks like the series will get only better with their plot from here on.

"We are Gundam Meisters"

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End of Claymore

Sayonara, Claymore fans. "I won't say when. But let us meet again" (Miria)

Claymore finally ended at episode 26. I really liked the whole series and wished that it wouldn't have ended so early. That said, it is only the end of season 1. Many people complained how it deviates from the manga since episode 20, and it turned out very bad and boring. I didn't read the manga at all, so I shall not compare the two (perhaps they really were true, but...). From my point of view, it wasn't the best ending I've seen so far, but certainly not a bad one. The conclusion of many main characters' plot were satisfying, though many others were left out; but hey, its only season 1, what more could we expect!? Even this last episode delivers a very nicely directed and planned ending, not just any crash course ones we'd see in many typical anime. The fight with Priscilla was not ended too quick nor too dragged on... (ok, maybe the whole North campaign thing was a bit long winded, from the fights with the 3 Awakened Being, to Rigardo, and then back to Priscilla, thus giving me the feeling "it should end by now~").

Final showdown between Clare (above) and Priscilla (bottom).

Nonetheless, the final blow by Clare is slightly off the scale. The almighty Priscilla was surprisingly caught by Clare's sudden counter attack... and the whole fight is over. If we follow the story closely, there is certainly no way Clare is anywhere near Priscilla's level, let alone the 'fully awakened' Priscilla (for no apparent reason at all). This did not appeals how strong Clare is, only how weak Priscilla had became (makes me wonder how strong is Number 1, 2 and 3). Nothing like what we've seen in the whole series. And, yes, Raki is there again to pull Clare back to her senses. Through out the series, what started as a dark themed anime, loses out its tension at the very last (be it for the better or worse).

Almost every episode promises a suspense, and the suspense is broken with often unexpected conclusions. This is what makes the whole thing so much enjoyable and addictive. This is the reason I insisted not to read the manga or even read any spoilers (and boo-ed manga readers who talked too much about it)!! But the final scenes just screams otherwise. No one could've guessed wrongly how the last episode would have ended. Clare will somehow overpower Priscilla, Raki will get Clare back to her senses again, and everyone just goes back home merrily. However, I must clarify that I did enjoyed the final episode (although it could've been better).

Jeanne returning Clare's favor by saving her. I really liked Jeanne, why does she have to die!!? (just like Teresa...)

Raki and Clare reunited at last.

I still must emphasize that Claymore (the anime) is really beautifully made. I love the characters, the plots, the fights, the theme, the colours, the music, the sound effect... everything about it is just great! Can't wait for the next season of it (if there really is...).

Farewell by Teresa. "Live as a human."

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Long time~

Ah, has been almost 2 months since I last updated my blog. Feeling guilty for being lazy and not continue or even end what I started. Was hooked on the "outdated" game of Ragnarok Online: TrinityRO (yes, its a private server) in the month of August, and then stucked onto Pirate King Online (game addict, tsk tsk...) in Sept. Not to mention that I am still grinding on the dramas Drive of Life and Steps.

Pirate King Online (http://www.piratekingonline.com/): Enniesse@Server Engine

Claymore is nearing its end (ok, season 1 ended at episode 26, but I haven't get to watch it yet!), Naruto manga getting a bit more interesting(?), Heroes is out with season 2, Gundam oo is premiering soon, and... College started!! New semester, new subjects, bad results (previously) equals more hard work this year(hopefully), and definitely more pressure (being the final year and all~).

I am planning to get the new PSP slim, still scouting around for prices and good offers though. Definitely, definitely looking forward to FF7 Crisis Core and FFTactics: The Lion's War!! Any good games to recommend, drop by a comment please. :) Other than that, I'm thinking of Monster Hunter Freedom 2, Ace Combat X (I'm an AC freak!), MGS Portable ops, Jeanne D'Arc, and probably Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth though it'll be a replay of the PSOne version.

Oh btw, the two themes for Sony Ericsson w810i (or k750i or whichever compatible) I made few months ago had been uploaded to lasyk.net. Feel free to check it out:

1. Suzumiya Haruhi
2. FFX2 Yuna

p.s.: Naruto - The theory of the Uchiha Clan: Trust me, read this if you haven't!!! http://forums.narutofan.com/showthread.php?t=106576

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Code Geass 24 & 25 (Season Finale)

Finally got to watch Code Geass' season 1 finale after such a long wait. Impression? As usual, the story progression begs for more surprises (albeit not shocking ones). The invasion plan of the Order of the Black Knights gone haywire right after Lelouch decided to turn tails and chase after his sister Nunnally who was captured by V2 (correct me if I'm wrong...). This really shows the importance of the morale of an army. Although Toudo is just as good a strategist as Lelouch (or the other way round perhaps), but the situation turned ugly not because of their strategy failing, but the confidence and morale of the army dropped largely (Diethard commended on the same thing as well). The whole season still ends in a cliff hanger after such a long wait, and the episodes wasn't anything more spectacular than the usual. Seriously, I didn't think it'd make a big difference now with or without episode 24 and 25. However, I do concur that if the series went straight up to 25 (without stopping for the long wait), then it'd be a tid bit more significant, giving a proper season ending for all the main characters, Lelouch, Suzaku, C.C., V.V., Nunnally, Karen, and the likes.

With 24 and 25 wrapping up the whole season, lets see what are the more memorable scenes:
Straight from my mind, I'd think the most memorable one is the existence of Mao, appearing in the episode Geass v Geass (episode 14). His Geass of mind reading which is the biggest advantage of the genius Lelouch is intriguing. A resemblance of Death Note's L vs Kira(Light/Raito) perhaps; both trying to outwit each other. Although Mao's arc main objective is to introduce to Lelouch the danger of overusing his/her Geass, and the fact that there is actually more than 1 Geass user like himself.

My favourite skirmish scene is of course the first battle Lelouch confronted. Lelouch had only used his Geass to obtain a Sutherland. The rest of the battle was fought with his wit and strategy against the Britannian Empire! Of course the rest of the battles that follows through the whole season is great, but there is too much a use of his Geass to impress me. The second most commendable one would definitely be the battle at Narita where the Order of the Black Knights guise their attempt to trap Cornelia by defending the stronghold at Narita.

Battle scene? The thing about Code Geass that separates it from the likes of Gundam and many other mecha animes is their little focus on mecha battles. Most of the battles were short, with most emphasis on their war-scale strategies. Any fight scene between the two aces, Suzaku of the Britannian and Karen of the Black Knights is great. Other than that, a good fight scene would be at episode 24, Cornelia vs Gawain. This fight really shows off to us that Lelouch despite his great planning strategies is a weak combat fighter, even with the Gawain, he stands no chance against Cornelia's Gloucester.

Code Geass is certainly a great anime, one which I would definitely rank it above Suzumiya Haruhi, on par with Claymore. Looking forward to season 2!

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